The Chinese scientist accused of undertaking a “monstrous experiment” for his involvement in the creation of the world’s first genetically edited babies has been sentenced to three years in prison.

He Jiankui triggered global headlines when, in November 2018, he claimed to have edited the genes of two healthy embryos resulting in the birth of two baby girls.

He said that, with the support of two colleagues, he used the CRISPR tool in an attempt to render the children immune to HIV, by turning a gene called CCR5 into a mutant form that prevents the virus from invading cells.

At the time, the experiment was described as “monstrous” by Professor Julian Savulescu, a visiting professorial fellow in biomedical ethics at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne, claiming it was “genetic Russian roulette”.